30 Jun 2026
Photo by Paul Einerhand The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has confirmed it will publish a new dataset linking UK fishing landings to the exact locations where they were caught, in a pre-announcement covering the 2024 data year. The dataset, named the Landings Enriched Approach for Positional FISHeries data, or LEAPFISH, is provisionally due for release […]
03 Feb 2026
Photo by Fotogra The Marine Management Organisation has secured its second successful prosecution for breaches of Marine Protected Area byelaws, following a guilty plea at North Tyneside Magistrates Court relating to illegal fishing activity inside the Canyons Marine Conservation Zone. On 29 January 2026, Marcos Gonzales-Rivera, a Spanish national and master of the British-registered […]
03 Jun 2025
Image: Fishing boat at the harbour – Paul Einerhand A new report claims that the marine insurance industry is enabling illegal and environmentally destructive behaviour in the fishing sector by insuring vessels that deliberately disable their tracking systems — a practice known as “going dark.” In 2023, Blue Marine investigators revealed how industrial fishing […]
22 Aug 2023
Following the announcement of the restart of the roll-out of Inshore Vessel Monitoring System (I-VMS) devices, the MMO has released further details on the schedule and plan for English port visits. From 9 August 2023, fishers have been able to purchase, and arrange the installation of, a type-approved device, either the Fulcrum NEMO or Succorfish […]
25 Apr 2023
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has issued an update on the roll out of Inshore-Vessel Monitoring System (I-VMS). The MMO update read: Important update – April 21 2023 As England’s marine regulator, MMO have been preparing to support industry, through grant funding to secure a Type Approved I-VMS device, so that every fisher has the […]
22 Feb 2022
Welsh fishing boats to have monitoring devices. Wales has become the first nation in the UK to require all of its licensed commercial fishing boats are fitted with a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). Boats 12m or more in length were already required to have such a system in place, but an Order coming into force […]
05 Nov 2018
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Marine Management Organisation We are seeking views on proposals to introduce Inshore Vessel Monitoring Systems (I-VMS) for all licensed British fishing boats under 12 metres in length, operating in English waters. This also covers English boats operating outside of English waters. VMS has been used as a monitoring system for UK […]
08 Feb 2017
Paper by R.Enever, S.Lewin, A.Reese & T.Hooper Abstract: We describe and analyse data on fishing effort collected by interviewing 1914 fishermen between 2007 and 2010. Combining socio-spatial data collected through a voluntary mapping project called “FisherMap” with UK and European vessel satellite monitoring data provides high resolution, national-scale maps of distribution and relative intensity of […]
